Automatic lamplighter.



R. L. KING. AUTOMATIC LAMPLIGHTER. APPLICATION men JULY 21,1916.

L225 64fin Patented May 8,1917.

ROBERT L. KING, OF YANCY MILLS, MISSOURI.

AUTOMATIC LAMPLIGI-ITER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 8, 1917.

Application filed July 21, 1916. Serial No. 110,585.

To all QUIZ/072?, it may concern Be it known that I, Runner L. KING, a citizen of the United States, residing a Yancy Mills, in the county of Phelps and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Lamplighters; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in an automatic lamplighter and one of its objects is the provision of a device of this character, which shall be simple, durable and eliicient, and which may be manufactured and sold at a comparatively low cost.

Another object of this invention is to provide a casing pivoted to the lamp burner and having pyrophoric material therein for an engagement with an igniting wheel, whereby upon rotation of the igniting wheel, sparks will be directed upon the wick of the lamp to ignite same.

A further object of this invention is to provide means for manually rotating the igniting wheel in one direction to cause spark from the pyrophoric material upon the lamp wick.

A still further object of this invention is to provide manually operated means for removing the charred or burned portions from the lamp wick when desired.

With these and other objects in view as will become more apparent as the description proceeds, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

For a complete understanding of my invention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section of an automatic lamplighter, con structed in accordance with my invention,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view with the lamp burner still removed, illustrating my invention applied to the base of the lamp burner,

Fig. 3 is a detail enlarged sectional view of the casing containing the pyrophoric material and the means for operating the ignit ing wheel, and

Fig. 4 is a detail perspective View of a knife for cutting the charred or burned lamp wick.

Referring in detail to the drmving.v the numeral 1 indicates as an entirety lamp burner, consisting of a base 2- having the usual dome-shaped cover 3 hinged thereto. The base 2 has the usual wick tube 4 in which is slidably mounted a lamp wick 5. The usual wick operating wheel 6 is in mesh with the wick 5 for raising the wick upwardly and downwardly within the wick tube 4. The foregoing description relates to a lamp burner of an ordinary construction, and to which my invention is applied.

A pair of ears 7 are struck up from the base 2 adjacent the wick tube 4 and have pivotally secured thereto a casing 8 by means of a bolt 9. The casing 8 is normally held in parallel alinement with the wick tube 4 by a spring arm 10 carried by the wick tube 4 and engaging upon one side of the casing 8 as clearly illustrated in Fig. 1. A piece of pyrophoric material 11 is slidably mounted within the casing 8 and is normally urged outwardly therefrom by a coil spring 12 interposed between the bottom wall of the casing and the lower end of the pyrophoric material 11.

A pair of relatively spaced standards 13 are secured to the base 2 of the lamp burner 1 upon each side of the casing 8 and terminate in a point above the casing 8. A spark ing wheel 14 is carried by a transverse shaft 15 which is journaled the upper end of the standards 13 and the periphery thereof normally engages the pyrophoric material 11, under the influence of the spring 12 urging the pyrophoric material 11 outwardly of the casing 8. A gear wheel 15 is journaled upon one end of the shaft 15 and has formed thereon a. clutch element 16 which is adapted to mesh with a clutch element 17 carried by the shaft 15. a coil spring 18 is mounted upon the shaft 15 an d bears against the gear wheel 15 for causing the clutch element 16 thereon to normally engage the clutch element 17 for causing the shaft 15 to rotate and in turn rotating the igniting wheel 14 against the pyrophoric material 11. The periphery of the igniting Wheel 14 carries a plurality of diagonally arranged serrations thereon for causing a roughened surface for the pyrophoric material to engage.

A lever 19 is pivoted to the spring arm 10 intermediate its ends and has its upper end bent at right angles to form a rack bar 20,

that has its lower face provided with a plurality of teeth for engagement with the gear wheel' 15. An operating rod 21 is pivoted to the lower end of the lever 19 and is slidably secured to a bracket 22 carried by the base 2 of the lamp burner 1, whereby upon pushing inwardly upon the operating rod 21 the lever 19 will be rocked upon its pivot causing the rack bar 20 to rotate the gear wheel 15 which in turn rotates the igniting wheel 14 against the pyrophoric material 11 to cause sparks therefrom upon the lamp wick 5 to ignite same. Upon return movement of the operating rod 21 to its normal position, the gear wheel 15 rotates freely upon the shaft 15 owing to the clutch elements 16 and 17 thus allowing the igniting wheel 14 to remain stationary, obviating the necessity of causing sparks from the pyrophoric material 11 when the operating rod 21 is returned to its normal position.

A pair of brackets 23 are secured to the base 2 upon the opposite side of the wick tube 4 from the ears 7 and have pivoted thereto vertical standards 24 which have journaled in their upper ends a transverse rod 25 carrying a knife blade 26. A suitable arm 27 is formed upon one of the vertical standards 24 for an engagement with the under. face of the knife 26 to support the knife 26 in a substantially horizontal plane. A suitable spring 28 is wound about one end of the rod 25 and has one of its ends in engagement with a lug 29 carried by the knife 26 and its other end secured to one of the standards 24 for normally holding the knife 26.into an engagement with the arm 27 but will allow the knife 26 to swing upwardly when operated. One of longer length than the other standard. and has pivotally secured rod .30 which is slidably mountedin the bracket 22. By pushing inwardly upon the operating rod 30, the standards 24 will be rocked upon their pivots, allowing the knife 26 tocut or remove any portions of the wick 5.

From the foregoing connection with the accompanying drawing,

Copies of this patent may be obtained for burner,

of the standards 24 is,

thereto an operating burned or charred description taken in 7 it will be seen upon pushing inwardly upon the operating rod 21, the igniting wheel 14 will be rotated in one direction to cause sparks from the pyrophoric material 11 upon the lamp wick 5 to ignite same. When the lamp wick 5 becomes charred or burned, by operating the operating rod 30, the knife 26 will be caused to move into an engagement with the charred or burned portions of the wick 5 and remove same therefrom.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that minor changes in construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and claimed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is In combination, a lamp burner including a wick tube and a wick therein, of a pair of relatively spaced ears struck up from the a casing pivoted to said cars, a spring arm secured to the wick tube and engaging the casing for supporting it in parallel alinement therewith, a piece of pyrophoric material slidable in said casing, a. spring positioned in said casing for urging the pyrophoric material upwardly therein, a pair of relatively spaced standards secured to the burner and extending parallel scope of the invention as with the casing, a transverse shaft journaled ROBERT L. KING.

Witnesses:

C. G. Hnss, Mrs. Lnn KING.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Eatents,

Washington, D. C. 

